Author Guidelines

1. Manuscript Template

All manuscripts must be prepared using the official JBDA manuscript template.

Download the JBDA Manuscript Template (.docx)

The template is a complete sample article laid out in the journal's published format. It shows the required page setup, fonts, heading styles, and the order of elements from the title block to the reference list. Please write your manuscript directly in the template, replacing the sample content with your own, and keep all formatting unchanged. Do not edit the journal header (volume, issue, and year), the line of submission dates, or the footer; these are completed by the editorial office. Save the file in .docx format before uploading. Manuscripts that do not follow the template may be returned to the authors before peer review.

2. Scope and Article Types

The Journal of Business and Data Analytics (JBDA) publishes research at the intersection of business and data analytics: work that develops, applies, or critically examines analytical methods in the service of business decision-making. Areas of interest include business intelligence and decision support, predictive and prescriptive analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence in business, big data strategy, financial and accounting analytics, marketing and customer analytics, operations and supply chain analytics, economic and market analytics, data visualization, algorithmic decision-making and governance, and analytics education. The full scope is described on the About the Journal page.

JBDA accepts the following article types:

Article type	Description	Main text length
Original Research Article	Empirical, methodological, or theoretical study presenting new findings or new analytical approaches	6,000–9,000 words
Review Article	Systematic, scoping, or critical synthesis of the literature with a transparent search and appraisal method	Up to 10,000 words
Case Study	Detailed account of the application of analytics in a specific organization or decision context, with lessons for research and practice	4,000–7,000 words
Expert Commentary	Perspective on an emerging development, controversy, or future direction of the field; invited or proposed to the editors	2,000–3,500 words

Word counts refer to the main text and exclude the abstract, tables, figure captions, acknowledgments, declarations, references, and appendices. Authors wishing to propose an Expert Commentary, or unsure whether their manuscript fits the journal's scope, are welcome to send a presubmission inquiry (title, article type, and a 200-word outline) to editorial@inatgi.net.

3. Before You Submit

Authorship. All listed authors must have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; drafted or critically revised the manuscript; approved the final version; and agreed to be accountable for the work. Contributors who do not meet these criteria should be named in the Acknowledgement. Changes to authorship after submission require written agreement from all authors.

ORCID. Every author must provide an ORCID iD in the submission system. Institutional e-mail addresses are preferred for all authors.

Originality. Submissions must not have been published previously, in whole or in substantial part, and must not be under consideration elsewhere. All manuscripts are screened for text similarity. Posting a manuscript on a recognized preprint server or working-paper series (for example, SSRN or arXiv) before submission is permitted and should be disclosed in the cover letter. Conference papers may be submitted if substantially extended; the extension should be explained in the cover letter.

Language. Manuscripts must be written in clear English. Either British or American spelling is acceptable, provided it is used consistently. Authors are encouraged to have the manuscript checked by a fluent speaker or a professional editing service before submission; this is not a requirement, and language editing does not affect editorial decisions.

Research ethics. Studies involving human participants, including surveys, interviews, experiments, and the analysis of personal data, must have been approved by an institutional review board or equivalent ethics committee, or the authors must state why approval was not required. Personal data must have been collected and processed in accordance with applicable data protection law and, where required, with informed consent. Proprietary or confidential organizational data must be used with the permission of the data owner.

4. Manuscript Preparation

4.1 Format

• Letter-size page, single column, Times New Roman throughout, with the body text size, line spacing, and margins set in the template; do not alter them.
• Use the template's heading styles for numbered section headings (1., 1.1, 1.1.1). The Acknowledgement, declarations, and References headings are not numbered.
• Do not insert page breaks, section breaks, or line numbers.
• Save as .docx.

4.2 Title block

The first page of the template contains, in order: the title (concise and informative, maximum 20 words, without abbreviations); the full names of all authors with superscript numbers linking them to their affiliations, the corresponding author marked with an asterisk; one affiliation line per number giving department, institution, city, postal code, and country; and the corresponding author's e-mail address. The line of submission dates (received, revised, accepted, published) is completed by the editorial office and should be left as it appears in the template.

4.3 Anonymized copy for double-blind review

Because JBDA uses double-blind review, authors must upload, in addition to the complete manuscript, an anonymized copy in which the author names, affiliations, corresponding author's e-mail, and the Acknowledgement section have been removed, and in which references to the authors' own prior work are written in the third person (for example, "Smith (2022) showed", not "we previously showed"). Identifying information should also be removed from the file properties. Organizations that are the subject of a case study may be anonymized in the reviewed copy if required by the data owner; the true identity is disclosed to the editors in the complete manuscript. Only the anonymized copy is sent to reviewers.

4.4 Abstract and keywords

The abstract is a single paragraph of 200–300 words that states the purpose of the study, the data and methods, the principal findings, and the implications for research and practice. It must be self-contained: no citations, figures, or undefined abbreviations. Systematic and scoping reviews may instead use a structured abstract with the headings Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions.

Provide 4–8 keywords separated by semicolons, as shown in the template, avoiding words already in the title.

4.5 Structure of the main text

Original Research Articles should normally follow the order below, using numbered headings as in the template. Case Studies may adapt the structure to the narrative of the case, and Review Articles should follow the structure appropriate to their review design.

1. Introduction. The business problem or decision context; the gap in existing knowledge; the research question or objective; a brief statement of the contribution; and an outline of the article.
2. Literature Review. Prior research relevant to the question; the theoretical or conceptual framework; and, where applicable, hypotheses.
3. Methodology. Research design; data sources, sampling, and data collection; variable construction and measurement; data preparation; analytical methods and models, with notation defined in a table where helpful; and software used. Machine learning studies must describe the train, validation, and test procedure, treatment of class imbalance and leakage, hyperparameter selection, and baselines.
4. Results. Findings presented in a logical order with supporting tables and figures; effect sizes and uncertainty reported alongside statistical significance; robustness checks and sensitivity analyses.
5. Discussion. Interpretation of the findings in relation to prior research and theory; implications for practice and for decision-makers; limitations; and directions for future research.
6. Conclusion. A concise statement of what the study adds; no new information or citations.

4.6 Standards of evidence and reporting

• Empirical studies must describe data sources, sampling, variable construction, and data cleaning in enough detail for the study to be reproduced.
• Quantitative results must report effect sizes and confidence intervals or standard errors, not only p-values. Exact p-values should be given where practical.
• Survey research should report the instrument, sampling frame, response rate, and any weighting or non-response adjustment. Experiments should report randomization, sample size justification, and, where applicable, pre-registration.
• Machine learning studies should report performance on held-out data with appropriate metrics, compare against meaningful baselines, and state the conditions under which performance can be expected to generalize.
• Analytical and optimization models should state all assumptions explicitly, define all notation, and report the parameter values used in numerical experiments.
• Systematic reviews should follow PRISMA 2020 and scoping reviews PRISMA-ScR, with the completed checklist uploaded as supplementary material.
• Qualitative studies should describe the sampling strategy, data collection, coding procedure, and measures taken to ensure trustworthiness.

4.7 Data and code availability

JBDA encourages authors to deposit the data and code needed to reproduce their results in a public repository (for example, Zenodo, Open Science Framework, GitHub with a DOI, or an institutional repository) and to cite the deposit in the Data Availability Statement. Where data cannot be shared for legal, ethical, or commercial reasons, authors must explain the restriction and provide whatever can be shared, such as synthetic or aggregated data, code, and full model specifications. Reviewers may request access to data and code during review; such access is treated as confidential.

4.8 Figures

Place each figure in the text immediately after the paragraph in which it is first cited, with a numbered caption below the figure in italics, as shown in the template. Captions must allow the figure to be understood without the text and must define all abbreviations. In addition, upload each figure as a separate file: TIFF, PNG, or EPS; at least 300 dpi for images and 600 dpi for line art; minimum width 85 mm. Charts should be legible in grayscale, with axes labeled and units given. Figures reproduced or adapted from other sources must state the source and confirm permission in the caption.

4.9 Tables

Place tables in the text after first citation, with a numbered caption in bold above the table, as shown in the template. Create tables with the Word table tool; do not use tabs, spaces, or images. Regression and model tables should report coefficients, standard errors or confidence intervals, sample size, and model fit statistics, and should define all variables in a note below the table. Mark footnotes with superscript lowercase letters.

4.10 Equations and notation

Number displayed equations consecutively in parentheses at the right margin. Define all symbols at first use, or collect them in a notation table. Use the equation editor in Word; do not insert equations as images.

4.11 References

References follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (APA 7). Cite in the text by author and year in parentheses, for example (Chen & Kumar, 2023) or Chen and Kumar (2023); for three or more authors use the first author followed by "et al." List references alphabetically at the end of the manuscript under the References heading, with a DOI for every reference that has one, as shown in the template. Working papers, preprints, datasets, and software should be cited with their version and repository. Reference management software may be used with an APA 7 output style; please remove field codes before submission.

4.12 Units, abbreviations, and nomenclature

Use SI units and state currencies with ISO codes (USD, EUR, CNY). Define every abbreviation at first use in the abstract and again in the main text. Name software packages and versions at first mention.

4.13 Supplementary material and appendices

Supplementary material (additional tables and figures, survey instruments, robustness checks, code listings, PRISMA checklists) should be uploaded as separate files and cited in the text as Table S1, Figure S1, and so on. Short technical appendices may be included after the References. Supplementary files are published as submitted and are not copyedited.

5. Acknowledgement and Declarations

After the Conclusion and before the References, the manuscript must contain the following unnumbered sections, in this order. Statements that do not apply should say so explicitly rather than being omitted. In the anonymized copy for review, the Acknowledgement, Funding, and Conflicts of Interest sections are removed or replaced by the words "removed for review".

• Acknowledgement – individuals who contributed but do not qualify as authors, with their permission, and any technical, writing, or editing assistance.
• Author Contributions – the contribution of each author, using CRediT roles.
• Funding – all funding sources and grant numbers, or a statement that the research received no external funding.
• Conflicts of Interest – all financial and non-financial interests, including consultancies, employment, equity, and any relationship with organizations studied; or a statement that the authors declare no conflict of interest.
• Ethical Approval and Consent – the approving body and reference number, or an explanation of why approval was not required.
• Data Availability Statement – where data and code can be found, or an explanation of restrictions.
• Declaration of Generative AI Use – required. Generative AI tools may not be listed as authors or cited as references. If such tools were used for any part of the work, name the tool and version and describe the purpose. Authors remain fully responsible for the content. If no such tools were used, state so.

6. Submission

Manuscripts are submitted through the journal's online submission system at https://inatgi.net/index.php/jbda/about/submissions. The corresponding author must register for an account and will receive all correspondence about the manuscript.

Please prepare the following files:

1. Complete manuscript (.docx), prepared in the template, including the title block with all author details, abstract, main text, acknowledgement and declarations, references, tables, and figures with captions.
2. Anonymized copy (.docx), identical to the complete manuscript except for the removals described in Section 4.3.
3. Figure files, one file per figure, in the formats and resolutions given in Section 4.8.
4. Supplementary material, if any, also anonymized.
5. PRISMA or PRISMA-ScR checklist, for systematic and scoping reviews.
6. Cover letter, stating the article type, why the manuscript is suitable for JBDA, its main contribution, confirmation that it is not under consideration elsewhere, and disclosure of any preprint, working paper, or conference version.

Suggested reviewers. Authors may suggest potential reviewers in the cover letter, giving each reviewer's name, affiliation, institutional e-mail address, and a brief statement of relevant expertise. Suggested reviewers must have no conflict of interest with the authors: they should not be at the same institution, should not have collaborated or co-authored with any of the authors within the past five years, and should not have a personal or financial relationship with them. Authors may also ask that specific individuals not be invited, with reasons. The editors are not bound by these suggestions.

Submissions are checked by the editorial office for completeness, anonymization, and compliance with these guidelines before being assigned to an editor. Incomplete or non-anonymized submissions are returned to the authors.

7. Peer Review and Editorial Process

JBDA operates double-blind peer review: the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers, and the identities of the reviewers are concealed from the authors. Each round of review involves at least two independent expert reviewers. Reviewers assess the soundness of the research design and methods, the reproducibility and transparency of the analysis, the validity of the conclusions, the originality of the contribution, and its relevance to business practice. The handling editor makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final.

Submissions receive an initial editorial assessment within 7 days of submission, at which point the manuscript is either sent for external peer review or returned to the authors. Authors can normally expect a first decision within 4 weeks of submission. Authors are given 6 weeks to return a major revision and 4 weeks to return a minor revision; extensions may be requested from the editorial office. Revised manuscripts must be accompanied by a point-by-point response to the reviewers' comments and a copy of the manuscript with changes marked, and are normally returned to the original reviewers.

Manuscripts authored by members of the Editorial Board, including the Editor-in-Chief, are handled by another editor with no connection to the authors and are subject to the same review process as all other submissions.

Accepted manuscripts are copyedited and typeset. The corresponding author receives page proofs and is asked to return corrections within 7 days; only corrections of errors are accepted at proof stage. Accepted articles are published in the next scheduled issue of the journal, which appears quarterly.

8. Publication Fees

JBDA charges an article processing charge (APC) of USD 500 per accepted manuscript, payable by the corresponding author after acceptance and before publication. There are no submission fees and no additional charges for color figures, tables, or supplementary material. Manuscripts that are rejected incur no charge.

Waivers and discounts. In line with international practice, JBDA grants a full APC waiver to manuscripts whose corresponding author is based in a low-income economy, and a 50% discount to manuscripts whose corresponding author is based in a lower-middle-income economy, according to the current World Bank classification. Expert Commentaries commissioned by the Editor-in-Chief are exempt from the APC. Authors who do not meet these criteria but face genuine financial hardship may apply for a discretionary waiver or discount at the time of submission by writing to editorial@inatgi.net. Waiver requests must be made at or before submission. All waiver decisions are made by the editorial office independently of the editorial process; editors and reviewers are not informed whether a waiver has been requested or granted, and the ability to pay has no influence on editorial decisions. Full details are given in the Publication Fee Policy.

9. Open Access, Copyright, and Licensing

JBDA is an open-access journal. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal a license to publish. Authors may deposit the published version in institutional or subject repositories without embargo.

10. Publication Ethics

The journal follows the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication or falsification, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and undeclared use of generative AI are treated as misconduct and handled according to COPE procedures, which may include rejection, retraction, and notification of the authors' institutions. Published articles are corrected or retracted where necessary, with a linked notice explaining the change.

Authors who believe an editorial decision was made in error may appeal in writing to editorial@inatgi.net, explaining the grounds for the appeal. Appeals are considered by an editor not involved in the original decision.

11. Contact

Editorial Office, Journal of Business and Data Analytics
Editor-in-Chief: Lili Gai, PhD, The University of Texas Permian Basin, USA
E-mail: editorial@inatgi.net
Online ISSN: 3068-3661